A sketch released by state police of a person of interest in the homicide of Laurie Ferguson. / Courtesy photo

Written by

Emily Stewart and Chris Valdez

Poughkeepsie Journal

Laurie Ferguson

Whom to call

Laurie Ferguson’s gray 2006 Saturn Ion four-door sedan with white and blue Liberty plates is missing and police are seeking the public’s help in finding it. The plate number is AFD7244. Anyone with information is asked to contact state police at 845-876-4049 or 845-677-7300.

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STAATSBURG — Three days after a 67-year-old Staatsburg woman was stabbed to death, police continue to hunt for a suspect.

Police late Friday afternoon found Laurie Ferguson's car on Reservoir Road in the Town of Hyde Park, a part of the Staatsburg neighborhood. The release of a sketch of a person of interest followed.

Police are looking to interview a 5-foot, 10-inch male with a full head of dark hair and a bushy, neatly trimmed beard who is believed to have been in the area where the car was located Friday. He was standing to the rear of a vehicle pulled over on Reservoir Road, north of the Staatsburg Reservoir, police said.

State police Lt. Dominic Chiumento said the man was spotted on the road by a witness passing by. It's believed the man was with another man and a child or teenage girl with dark hair and wearing a dress, police said.

Authorities are still investigating the apparent homicide of Ferguson, 67, of Hyde Park Mobile Manor trailer park on Route 9G, who was discovered in her bedroom on Thanksgiving, police said.

State police Capt. Scott Brown said police are following multiple leads, conducting numerous interviews and searching areas in the vicinity of the mobile home park. Due to the sensitivity of the case, Brown wouldn't release further information.

Chiumento wouldn't say if there were signs of forced entry at Ferguson's home. Ferguson was described Saturday by those who knew her as someone with a smile on her face, a church goer and power walker.

Ferguson’s home, a beige trailer labeled “J1,” has several small awnings over windows in the front and wind chimes hanging near the doorway.

The trailers throughout the park are of different colors, and slightly different styles, positioned along a small road that winds throughout.

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Dr. Kari Reiber, Dutchess County chief medical examiner, said Ferguson’s autopsy was done Friday and the cause of death was multiple stab wounds.

Police are looking backward at a 24-hour window from Thursday evening through the previous day when the death may have occurred, Chiumento said at a news conference in Rhinebeck on Friday.

Ferguson had an engagement Thursday afternoon that she didn’t attend, he said.

Chiumento said Ferguson was married but lived alone. He said that he wasn’t sure what her occupation was but that she was an upstanding citizen and he had “nothing negative” to say about her. There have been no prior problems at the trailer, he added.

Brown said there’s nothing to indicate the homicide was a domestic incident and Ferguson’s husband was out of the area at the time.

She was a grandmother, but it’s unclear how many children she had, he said.

Chiumento said a state police dive team searched a small pond behind her trailer with a metal detector Friday but didn’t locate significant evidence.

Seethroughny.net shows Ferguson was an employee of the Hyde Park School District in 2010 and 2011.

Neighbor Ben Simpson, 48, said he and his wife were “devastated” by the news.

“She was a sweetheart,” he said. “It’s supposed to be a good day — holidays — not supposed to be something like this.”

Simpson, who owns his home and has lived in the park for eight years, said he saw Ferguson’s car parked in its usual spot by her home when he left at 9:45 a.m. Thursday.

“This is what we came back to,” he said of the police presence. “It’s basically a good neighborhood. This is like a freak thing.”

Hyde Park police responded to the initial call at 6:47 p.m., Chiumento said. State police Sgt. Mark Breen said Ferguson’s family members found her and contacted authorities.

Hope Sweeney, 39, who lives near Ferguson’s home, said she saw one state trooper vehicle when she got home from her sister’s Thursday evening.

She said it’s not unusual to see police at the park about once a month, and she had assumed the officer was there because of a domestic problem related to the holiday.

Later that night, police knocked on her door and asked for a statement. Other neighbors, too, said they were asked for statements by police.

Sweeney said she thinks Ferguson had lived there for about four years.

“(Ferguson) always had a smile and a wave,” Sweeney said. “It’s always been very quiet around her trailer.”

Dutchess County Senior Assistant District Attorney Ed Whitesell visited the Mobile Manor park and spoke with police at the crime scene Friday.

“The more we know at the beginning, the easier it is to prosecute the case, if someone is ultimately arrested,” Whitesell said.

He said the District Attorney’s Office generally stays out of the investigative aspect of a case, “unless there’s a legal reason for us to be involved.”

Tips and information can be reported to state police at 845-876-4049 or 845-677-7300. The investigation continues.